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OROP: Hazare to join ex-servicemen protest on 'Vijay Diwas'
Updated: Wednesday, July 15, 2015, 18:49 [IST]
Updated: Wednesday, July 15, 2015, 18:49 [IST]
Mail New Delhi, July 15: Social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday said he would join ex-servicemen in their protest against delay in implementation of One Rank One pension (OROP) at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on the occasion of 'Vijay Diwas' on July 26. Hazare, who has served in the Indian Army, in an audio message sent to the protesting ex-servicemen on Wednesay, said a rally would be taken out on "Vijay Diwas". The day on July 26 commemorates the 1999 Kargil war victory.
"On 26th July, 2015, Vijay Diwas is being celebrated... We won the war because of those who were martyred at Kargil," Hazare said in the audio message. Also read: Hazare meets ex-Defence officers on OROP issue "On this occasion, taking up the issue of One Rank One Pension, I will come to Jantar Mantar in Delhi for a 'Sena Samman' rally," he said, giving a call to all former soldiers and farmers to attend the rally.
"Former soldiers and farmers should participate in the rally in huge numbers," he said.
Hazare earlier wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to implement the OROP scheme at the earliest, failing which he said he would launch a countrywide agitation for it.
Hazare earlier wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to implement the OROP scheme at the earliest, failing which he said he would launch a countrywide agitation for it.
In his letter, Anna said the country must take care of its farmers and soldiers. However, he clarified his protest was not political. IANS
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TMC pledges support to ex-servicemen over OROP demand
By ANI | ANI – 12 hours ago
New Delhi, July 15 (ANI): The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday said that it will support ex-servicemen's demand of One Rank One Pension (OROP) policy, adding that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may even come to Delhi to show her support.
"Mamata di was approached and as per her advice I came here, they have handed over the letter to implement One Rank One Pension. We told them that we are with them and we will do all it takes in Parliament and outside Parliament to have One Rank One Pension. This letter will reach Mamata di, and after that if need be, she will come to Delhi to show her support," TMC leader Derek O'Brien told ANI at ex-servicemen protest over OROP here.
"The last government tried, this government promised, but did not deliver, we want this OROP to be delivered," he added.
Earlier, social activist Anna Hazare had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to implement the OROP scheme at the earliest, failing which, he would launch a countrywide agitation for the same.
The OROP scheme has been a long-standing demand of ex-servicemen's associations and relates to payment of uniform pension to defence forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement. (ANI)
Ex-servicemen to step up protest for OROP
The Hindu
demanding implementation of one rank one pension (OROP) scheme, in New Delhi on July 14, 2015. Photo: Sandeep
New Delhi: Having failed to get their demand for 'One Rank One Pension' implemented despite 30 days of agitation, the ex-servicemen community on Tuesday announced that they will "regretfully heighten" their agitation and hold a major rally in poll-bound Bihar in August.
The United Front of Ex-Servicemen (UFESM) has given the government a seven-day notice before they intensify the ongoing agitation.
Neglect of Ex-servicemen: Political Irrelevance is the Root Cause
(Fauji Magazine July 2015)
Major General Mrinal Suman
Soldiers’ dedication to duty, loyalty to the nation and willingness for the supreme sacrifice are driven less by material considerations and more by an overwhelming urge to earn love and respect of their countrymen. A grateful nation’s recognition of their contribution to national security acts as the strongest motivator.
Compassion for soldiers and ex-servicemen is the hallmark of all great nations. Any nation that does not care for its soldiers loses moral right to expect them to die for its security. The British recognized this fact better than any other nation and went on to rule half the world. The nation never forgets its war heroes. Every major landmark in London is named after distinguished soldiers and not politicians.
While addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention at the Phoenix Convention Center on 17 August 2009, President Obama declared, “You have fulfilled your responsibilities. And now a grateful nation must fulfill ours. And so long as I am President of the United States, America will always fulfill its responsibilities to you”. He termed America's commitment to its veterans as sacred bonds and a sacred trust Americans are honour-bound to uphold.
Unfortunately, India does not have a culture of respecting its soldiers. Although the public at large holds the military in high esteem, the same cannot be said of India’s ruling dispensations. Since Independence, exploiting the inexperience and gullibility of the military leadership, there has been a continuous flow of policy changes which have reduced the status of the services.
Worse, the government has adopted a negative attitude towards the ex-servicemen. No effort is made to redress their genuine grievances. Neglect of ex-servicemen affects the morale of the serving soldiers adversely as they see themselves as ex-serviceman of the future. They start entertaining doubts about the government’s sincerity in fulfilling its commitments to them after superannuation.
Worrisome Adversarial Relationship
The growing adversarial relationship between the government and the ex-servicemen is a matter of grave concern. For the last few years, an impression is gaining ground that the government is becoming increasingly intolerant and biased against the ex-servicemen. The vindictiveness and wickedness with which the government is contesting court orders given in favour of the ex-servicemen has shocked even the die-hard supporters of the government.
The 4th Pay Commission had granted Rank Pay in addition to basic pay for officers up to the rank of Brigadier. However, while fixing pay in the integrated scale, an amount equal to the Rank Pay was deceitfully deducted from the total dues, thereby causing heavy financial loss to the officers.
The case of C S Sidhu, a Short Service Commissioned Officer whose right arm had to be amputated due to an accident while serving on the border in high altitude area in November 1970, is symptomatic of the disdain and viciousness with which an apathetic Government treats its brave soldiers. His pension was fixed at a pittance (about Rs 1000) per month.
In the recent past, India was witness to the most unfortunate sight of numerous military veterans returning their medals to the President to register their protest against government’s indifference to their pleas for the grant of much promised One Rank One Pay (OROP). Medals earned during active service are the proudest possession of soldiers and their being driven to surrender them should have made the government sit up and take note. But true to its wont, the government remained totally unconcerned and unmoved. In addition, nearly 6,000 ex-servicemen signed in blood to express their frustration. This episode will certainly go down as a dark chapter in the history of Independent India.
During 2014 general elections, sensing an opportunity to garner additional votes, the principal opposition party publicly promised to implement OROP, if voted to power. It also included the same in its manifesto. Trusting the solemn undertaking given by the top leadership of the party, the ex-servicemen voted overwhelmingly in its favour. Most disappointingly, even after being in power for more than a year, the current government is still vacillating, forcing the ex-servicemen to resort to hunger strikes. Worse, the ruling party appears least concerned.
Incorrect to Blame Bureaucracy
The services consider bureaucrats to be their biggest adversary. They are painted as the incorrigible villains who doggedly impede implementation of all pro-services measures – endless litigations, rank pay, OROP imbroglio, equipment deficiencies and so on. The bureaucracy is certainly culpable for many of the ills that dog the Indian governance. However, it is unfair to put the entire blame on it. Bureaucracy does not function in a vacuum. It has to obey the dictats of its political masters.
Indian bureaucracy suffers from dissociative identity disorder – a split-personality syndrome. While dealing with the public, a bureaucrat is an arrogant ruler who considers himself to be the dispenser of largesse and behaves in a haughty, pretentious, condescending, pompous and supercilious manner.
However, his other personality manifests itself when he interacts with his political master. He becomes the most servile, timid, gutless and spineless creature on the earth. As it takes no time for a minister to remove a recalcitrant bureaucrat, no bureaucrat ever opposes or questions his minister. Bureaucrats are ‘survivors’ by nature and swim with the tide. No bureaucrat stopped scams related to 2G spectrum, coal mines and the Commonwealth games.
Rahul Gandhi’s demand for an increase in the number of subsidized gas cylinders from 9 to 12 per month at a Congress rally at Delhi on 17 January 2014 meant additional financial burden of Rs 5,000 crore per year. The Revenue Secretary did not object to the huge fiscal penalty. He knew what was good for him. Fading away gracefully is not a trait that most bureaucrats can be accused of suffering from. They dread retirement, and for reemployment, they need to cultivate their political mentors and stay on their right side.
Therefore, it is grossly unfair for the ex-servicemen to blame the bureaucrats for the OROP logjam. No bureaucrat can dare to stall it unless so instructed by his ministers. Undoubtedly, it is the political leadership that is asking the bureaucrats to keep raising infructuous and irrelevant queries. Bureaucrats are simply following the orders. It brings one to the crux issue. Why is the political leadership of the country so indifferent towards the soldiers and the ex-servicemen?
The answer is obvious: soldiers do not count as a worthwhile vote bank and hence do not need to be cultivated. Vote bank politics is one of the indisputable characteristics of democracy. Unless the ex-servicemen acquire political relevance, they will continue to be ignored. They must make themselves get counted as a worthwhile vote bank. It is only then that they can acquire political leverage.
Fear of Politicisation of the Military is Misplaced
An advisory issued by the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) before the last general elections supporting the opposition party that promised OROP raised hackles of many purist veterans who considered such an act to be sacrilege of the worst kind and a step towards politicisation of the services.
Politicisation as a phenomenon is generally applied to an organisation or a group. In other words, it implies collective disposition and not individual inclination. Social scientists have not been able to agree on a standard definition of politicisation as regards the military. It covers a huge spectrum. On the upper extreme is military’s demand for a formal and institutionalised role in national affairs. On the lower extreme lies military’s open display of political preference. Most of the middle ground is occupied by groups harbouring political ambitions to meddle in state’s functioning, albeit to varying degree.
As regards apolitical deportment, it can be collective as well as individual. It reflects a policy of scrupulously avoiding involvement in political matters and affairs. Apolitical demeanour neither means apathy towards political matters nor lack of political opinion. Every soldier has been granted a right to vote for the candidate and party he deems worthy of his confidence. That implies that he has to be politically aware to make a well considered decision.
Therefore, it is incorrect to assume that a soldier should have no political preference. However, he can neither do canvassing for any political outfit nor display his leanings publicly. In other words, he does not participate in political activities, affairs and public debates.
Once a soldier retires, he becomes a common citizen with no restrictions on his fundamental rights. He has the right to participate in political activities and even stand for elections. A number of ex-servicemen have acquitted themselves creditably in the political appointments assigned to them. Major General Khanduri excelled both as union cabinet minister and chief minister of his state.
As the constitution grants all rights to retired soldiers, no one can fault them for developing political ambitions and affiliations. In the US and other European countries, ex-servicemen have risen to be the head of their state and led their countries commendably.
The Way Forward
Undoubtedly, the military as an organisation must not get politicised. Its members should be politically aware but stay apolitical. While 'committed' bureaucracy and police have done immense damage to the body-politic of the country, consequences of ‘committed’ military can be far worse. India is proud of its apolitical military. Nothing should ever be done to dent it.
However, it is a misplaced notion that ex-servicemen should also continue to remain apolitical. Like other citizens, they are at liberty to form a group and seek furtherance of their interests through political means. Many ex-servicemen have fought elections on various party tickets and have won them as well. However, their influence in decision making has been non-existent. All political parties evolve policies and undertake programmes to promote the interests of their support bases to get continued support. For them, interests of ex-servicemen are of no electoral value.
Some well-wishers suggest that ex-servicemen should form a political party and participate in elections. It is an impractical proposition for a number of reasons. One, ex-servicemen are spread across the whole country and do not form enough mass to influence electoral result in any constituency. Two, political parties thrive through cadres which take decades to create. Three, enormous funds are needed to fight elections, both for electioneering and buying votes – ‘vote for note’ is a shameful but factual facet of the Indian democratic system. Can ex-servicemen distribute liquor in shanties and transport hordes of slum-dwellers to voting booths?
To become politically relevant, ex-servicemen should form a ‘pressure group’. They are variously described as ‘interest groups’, ‘lobby groups’ or ‘protest groups’. All democracies have them. A pressure group is a voluntary non-profit organisation that does not put up candidates for election; but whose members have a common cause for which they seek to influence public opinion and political decision makers to achieve a declared objective.
Ideally, a pressure group should function both at formal and informal levels. The formal component should consist of organized lobby groups, political action committees, think tanks and media watchdog groups. The informal component should attempt to influence the public opinion makers through regular interaction, press notes, articles and group discussions, both on TV and in seminars.
Lessons can be drawn from the functioning of the highly successful Jew pressure groups in the US. Prior to 1967, the US government was totally hostile towards Israel but since 1979, Israel has received the maximum foreign aid from the US. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), with close to 100,000 members, is the leading pro-Israel lobby. It has succeeded in influencing public opinion in such an effective manner that even the lawmakers get encouraged to support AIPAC policies.
However, to replicate the success of AIPAC, unity amongst all ex-servicemen is an inescapable prerequisite. The current fractured state of tens of associations and leagues must end. It has to be a single front with a single voice representing every ex-serviceman. It is only then that the ex-servicemen will be taken seriously.
Visual media has become a very powerful tool. A large number of leading anchors belong to service families and are sympathetic towards the ex-servicemen. Their help should be sought to educate the masses and the decision makers. Additionally, ex-servicemen appearing in TV debates must be fully briefed and armed with facts and figures. They should be able to argue intelligently and coherently like Colonel Kaul. An ill-prepared ex-serviceman does considerable harm to their cause.
The front should explore all avenues to highlight the deliberate injustice being done to the ex-servicemen. Bold opinion makers like Justice Katju and Arun Shorey should be convinced to support the cause. Social media should be intelligently exploited to enlist support of the country’s intelligentsia. It will not be inappropriate to take help from professional agencies.
Finally, the ex-servicemen will do well to remember Clausewitz’s counsel ‘make the best use of all the means available at our disposal for achieving the aim’.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBK1U0N8UJ4
EX-SERVICEMEN MAHA SANGRAM RALLY
EXSERVICMEN ARE DISAPPOINTED WITH NDA GOVERNMENT.
2.I AM PERSONALLY IN FAVOUR OF OROP BUT BUREAUCRATS DON'T WANT OROP TO BE GIVEN TO THE DEFENCE SERVICES....MMS AS PM
3.OROP-WE ARE HERE FOR 5 YEARS- MODI AS PM (IT MEANS IT MAY TAKE UPTO 4 YEARS MORE TO IMPLEMENT OROP I.E. APRIL 2019)
4.''....Finance Minister finds the cost of implementation of OROP not commensurate to the political benefits therefrom.”--------Congress
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Regards,-----------------------------------------------
1.OROP MESSAGE FOR PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8je50L94fcY&feature=share
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8je50L94fcY&feature=share
2.अनिश्चितकाल धरने पर बैठे
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBK1U0N8UJ4
3.Is the One Rank One Pension stuck in red tape or political apathy? Why has the Congress, and now the BJP, dragged their feet on the issue?
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-buck-stops-here/one-rank-one-pension-soldiers-war-cry/372281 ( OROP video
Duration: 48 min, 19 sec 22 June 2015
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Prime Minister's promise on OROP was another 'jumla' ---Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
With Narendra Modi seeking time from ex-servicemen to address the vexed issue of one-rank, one pension, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said Prime Minister's promise on OROP was another 'jumla' as the one on black money even as he favoured inclusion of paramilitary personnel in the scheme.
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Govt.planning to give LOLLYPOP instead of ''OROP -- DELAY,DENY,DILUTE!
Bureaucrats in Finance Ministry are inventing their own definition of ''OROP''
TO DELAY,DENY,DILUTE ''OROP''. They are not interested in hounouring
Koshiyari Committee definition.Passing the OROP buck to 7th cpc,FM asking
veterans to accept the definition invented by secretary finance expenditure
are all indicating-DELAY,DENY,DILUTE ''OROP''
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LOLLYPOP
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LOLLYPOP
EX-SERVICEMEN MAHA SANGRAM RALLY
FROM 1000H TO 1430H ON 14 JUNE 15/HUNGER STRIKE FROM 15 JUNE 2015
AT JANTAR MANTAR NEW DELHI
OH ! - YOU SAID ''OROP''
1.MANY PROMISES ARE MADE DURING ELECTIONS, EVERY PROMISE CAN NOT BE FULFILLED, SCALE DOWN YOUR EXPECTATIONS--- JAITLY ON OROP2.I AM PERSONALLY IN FAVOUR OF OROP BUT BUREAUCRATS DON'T WANT OROP TO BE GIVEN TO THE DEFENCE SERVICES....MMS AS PM
3.OROP-WE ARE HERE FOR 5 YEARS- MODI AS PM (IT MEANS IT MAY TAKE UPTO 4 YEARS MORE TO IMPLEMENT OROP I.E. APRIL 2019)
4.''....Finance Minister finds the cost of implementation of OROP not commensurate to the political benefits therefrom.”--------Congress
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